Winter Wonder

Lipinski Becomes Youngest Champion

February 21, 1998|By JERE LONGMAN New York Times

NAGANO, Japan _ — When she finished her routine, Tara Lipinski sprinted across the ice, as if trying to catch the glorious moment and hold it forever.

Then she saw her scores and her placement above Michelle Kwan and she knew that at 15, she had become the youngest woman ever to win an Olympic figure-skating title. And she let out a shriek as joyous and uninhibited as her skating.

She had dreamed of this moment since the age of 2, when she stood on a Tupperware container while the 1984 Summer Olympics played on television, listening to the national anthem, wearing an ersatz gold medal around her neck, pretending to clutch a bouquet of flowers.

But Friday night, the gold medal was real, the flowers were real, her place in Olympic history was real. No younger athlete had ever won an individual gold medal at the Winter Games. A 13-year-old summer Olympian, Marjorie Gestring of Los Angeles, won the springboard diving event at the 1936 Berlin Games.

``It was amazing,'' Lipinski, who lives and trains in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., said of standing on the medal podium. ``It went by so quick. I was happy, but a little sad, knowing I was going to have to get off. I couldn't think of anything wrong, I couldn't think of anything negative. Everything was perfect.''

Lipinski is two months younger than Sonja Henie was when Henie won her first of three Olympic titles in 1928. Lipinski won Friday night because she was technically superior to Kwan, faster, more aggressive and more exuberant in her skating. Six of the nine judges placed her first.

A disappointed but gracious Kwan took the silver medal after a deliberate free skate in which the joy that had previously shown on her face lapsed into seriousness and timidity.

Lu Chen of China won the bronze with a redemptive performance after a ruinous 1997 season in which she sustained a foot injury and was forced to leave her training base in Los Angeles and return home to train. She did not even qualify for these Games by the customary route and had to earn her spot at a special competition in Vienna last October.

Lipinski and Kwan, meanwhile, arrived in Nagano expected to challenge for the gold medal. Kwan, 17, was favored, having won the national championships last month after having received 15 of a possible 18 perfect marks of 6 for artistry. But Lipinski, the defending world champion, luxuriated in the role of underdog. She is the smallest American Olympian, at 4 feet 10 inches, 82 pounds, but she consumes the ice with the sheer delight of performing.

She relaxed and had fun for two weeks, staying in the Olympic Village, while Kwan arrived after the Opening Ceremony and stayed with her family in a hotel. Even when Kwan was placed first by eight of nine judges in Wednesday's short program, Lipinski remained convinced that she could win Friday night's free skate, which counted for two-thirds of the scoring.

``Sometimes, when you're No. 1, you look over your shoulder,'' said Richard Callaghan, who coaches Lipinski.

Kwan, who had defeated Lipinski twice this season, had a look of reverie on her face at the national championships in Philadelphia as she skated to Angel's Song by William Alywn. She had talked of angels and clouds, of floating over the ice. But Friday night, skating first among the contenders, she appeared deliberate and circumspect. She wobbled out of a triple flip, then landed uncertainly on a triple loop. She grew more confident as her four-minute routine progressed, and she received all 5.9's for presentation. But her technical marks ranged from 5.7 to 5.8, meaning the judges had left room at the top.

Irina Slutskaya of Russia, Chen and Surya Bonaly of France were still to skate before Lipinski. Kwan did not watch Lipinski perform. ``I was thinking, `Am I going to win, or am I going to be second?' '' Kwan said.

When she heard Lipinski's marks _ all 5.8's and 5.9's for technique and artistry _ she knew she had won silver, not gold.

While Susan A. Johnson, the American judge, voted for Kwan, the judges from Australia, Hungary, Austria, Russia, Ukraine and France voted for Lipinski. International judges seem to score Lipinski more favorably than American judges, apparently feeling that speed, magnificent jumping and jubilant skating are as valuable as dramatic presentation. Kwan's performance would very likely have won any previous Olympics. But Lipinski had markedly improved her artistry over the summer by touring and practicing in front of a mirror. Now she appeared to feel her music, instead of simply skating to it. And her jumps were more demanding than Kwan's. Skating second to last, Lipinski admitted some inevitable nervousness when she took the ice. But no one had surpassed Kwan. There was still room enough to win. ``Some thoughts creep in, but you push it away,'' Lipinski said. ``You have to think, `I want it,' and not let anything get in the way.''

She had spent the afternoon relaxing in the Olympic Village, playing in the game room, making stickers from photographs of herself. Living in the Village had relieved stress and pressure and given her a rich experience that she could take home, even if she did not win a medal. Lipinski opened by landing her quick, tight double axel and assertively performed the triple flip that had left her sprawled on the ice in the short program at the national championships.

Because she had aggravated a stress fracture of the second toe in her left foot last fall, Kwan had not been able to rehearse a triple-triple combination this season. Lipinski performed two of them Friday night, and when she flawlessly discharged her trademark triple loop-triple loop, her face lighted up like a Christmas tree. ``When the music came on and I knew I was at the Olympics and I was skating great, it all came out,'' she said.